Brakes
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Cruiser
Joined: Mar 2013
Posts: 204
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From: Ontario
Brakes
I’m riding a 2015 Freewheeler trike with 23,000 kms (14,300 miles) on it. I’m a very easy rider when it comes to using my brakes, don’t ride crazy fast, gear down coming to stop, etc... My dealer says I need new brakes, front and back, considering how I ride, I’m thinking I should be getting more mileage than this before needing new brakes or is this “normal “?
Seasoned HDF Member
Joined: Dec 2017
Posts: 5,076
Likes: 3,293
From: Plover, WI
Mileage has nothing to do with brake wear. I could cover 100 miles of straight road one day, and never touch the brakes. Do the same 100 miles the next day on a different route, and brake dozens of times. Which day was normal?
Seasoned HDF Member
Joined: Aug 2008
Posts: 5,048
Likes: 990
sometimes, we think we ride easy but truth told, hummm???
brakes depend upon sweep area, rotor material, pad material (must be compatible) and weight. front brake will tend to wear faster due to loading change when braking. however, 15,000 miles would not be a bad number for stock setup.
now you can swap things up but each will have +/-'s.
harley does not use a audible pad warning system. what they do is loss of stroke, seems riders will notice this more so that a squeal as many people will ignore anyway. so if your leaver/pedal is just about bottomed out, two options:
replace the pads and check rotors (DO NOT TURN, THESE WERE SURFACED GROUND)
do as i do, IF, you will keep up with it, if you are not ONE with the machine, do not even think about it. i ride aggressive so when i have loss of stroke, i have made shims to shim out the pads to get extra life from the pads. even when i have loss of stroke, pad material is nowhere at its EOL. so i shim out and next loss of stroke, i install new pads. the shims will gain around .025 material so a total of .050 due to shims behind both side and this restores full stroke. there is still material left.
side note: you must know your brake setup as things will change model to model, examine the pad material and measure it to see if the above is feasible. if you have "X" thickness new and you used "Y" material and have "Z" material left and you have more than the minimum thickness after subtracting "Z" from "Y" then doable.
cheaper to do your own brakes, easy enough.
brakes depend upon sweep area, rotor material, pad material (must be compatible) and weight. front brake will tend to wear faster due to loading change when braking. however, 15,000 miles would not be a bad number for stock setup.
now you can swap things up but each will have +/-'s.
harley does not use a audible pad warning system. what they do is loss of stroke, seems riders will notice this more so that a squeal as many people will ignore anyway. so if your leaver/pedal is just about bottomed out, two options:
replace the pads and check rotors (DO NOT TURN, THESE WERE SURFACED GROUND)
do as i do, IF, you will keep up with it, if you are not ONE with the machine, do not even think about it. i ride aggressive so when i have loss of stroke, i have made shims to shim out the pads to get extra life from the pads. even when i have loss of stroke, pad material is nowhere at its EOL. so i shim out and next loss of stroke, i install new pads. the shims will gain around .025 material so a total of .050 due to shims behind both side and this restores full stroke. there is still material left.
side note: you must know your brake setup as things will change model to model, examine the pad material and measure it to see if the above is feasible. if you have "X" thickness new and you used "Y" material and have "Z" material left and you have more than the minimum thickness after subtracting "Z" from "Y" then doable.
cheaper to do your own brakes, easy enough.
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